We had a great days on Saturday, my sons and I, cleaning the house. That’s right, I said “great day.” It was satisfying, the boys were into it, and we had fun while we were at it.
Believe me, it isn’t always that way around here. What went right? Well, about six things, to be exact. Here’s the list … Read more…
There is a great little story on Jackie Kovac’s blog (“The Big Kid Years” on the Today’s Parent site) about going to see the Paul McCartney concert with her daughter last Monday. her daughter (15) has grown up hearing the Beatles and Paul McCartney, so the experience was equally rich for both of them. It’s so lovely when that can happen!
The Three Little Birds performing in Toronto last weekend
It was a big deal, last year, when we got an nice iPod Touch for my son’s birthday, and it was great to see how much use he made of it: texting friends, playing games, emailing, noting school assignments, and yes, even listening to music. When we went on longer trips it gave him something to do, and I felt like a good parent for having provided it.
When all is said and done, pets are better than iPods anway.
We are not a religious family per se, but we do say a simple non-denominational grace most days. It’s not about a religious tradition so much as it is about stopping to say “thank you” for what we have.
Another great meal made (mostly) by the youngest member of the family.
Much is said these days about the attitude of entitlement that young people seem to have. I’m not sure what I think about that. Sometimes I think it may be just curmudgeonly griping by the older generation. But I do think that life is that much better if we learn to stop from time to time and express appreciation.
Between people, saying “thank you” is a basic form of acknowledgment, like “please,” “hello” and “goodbye.” We affirm each other when we say these things. It does us all good. And there is something extra special about “thank you.”
I’m convinced we owe it to our kids to model thankfulness in whatever way works for us. I’m not sure you can “teach” someone to be grateful, but perhaps we can teach it by demonstrating gratitude ourselves.
My youngest son is a picky eater. I’ve tried all the tricks. I’ve insisted that he at least tries whatever is served. I’ve tried to force him to eat; I’ve tried bribes. I’ve tried building our menus around his preferences. Mostly, I guess, I have resigned myself to it.
You will never believe where this delicious meal came from.
Then one day I got the Jamie Oliver cooking app on my iPhone. It has many how-to videos and we enjoyed watching them immensely. (They’re great for long car drives, by the way). It also has recipes, and young son chimed in that he would like to make the pork chow mein. Just as I was about to tell him “this recipe is way to complicated,” I stopped myself…
We made the shopping list, bought all the ingredients and then we went through the elaborate preparation (“20-minute meals” my foot!) Sure, we got some parts wrong, but we ended up with something that looked pretty good (see photo). And guess who ate every last scrap on his plate!
We’re going camping next week, nothing special or complicated, just car camping at Sandbanks – cooking outdoors, walks in the dunes, days at the beach, roasting marshmallows over the fire. Last year, we had a great trip to Tobermory. This will be the continuation of that experience.
My sister and her family and a few of my brood make their way along the shore on the beautiful Bruce Peninsula.
The beauty of camping for me is that is seems to appeal across the generations. Adults and children enjoy the adventure of the outdoors. And believe me, my youngest can be hard to please at times, but once we get out there, he responds, and my little stick in the mud becomes a great travel companion.
The youngest Philpott reading Harry Potter in the great outdoors.
Yes, I nag. I know it’s useless, and it rarely gets me anywhere with my kids, but I still sometimes catch myself doing it. Last weekend, the boys did not do their clean-up chores, which they normally do pretty well. I got home from my errands and there they were on the XBox, the living room looking like a landscape in the game they were playing. So I nagged. I got righteous (you know, about all the things I do for them … blah, blah, blah) and from there it’s only a hop skip and a jump to obnoxious. I even found myself obnoxious. Read more…
Summer is finally and truly upon us with heat waves, blackouts … and kids whining about having nothing to do.
Oh well. Read more…
Nothing bad happened, but listening to the news afterwards, you had to wonder if it was such a smart thing to do.
It was.
It’s not often that we can watch the “news” in real life, so I didn’t want to miss this opportunity – not only for my own curiosity, but also for my son’s sake. We drove down in the middle of the afternoon on Sunday to see for ourselves what was going on. We parked near the beautiful Distillery District – there were almost no cars on the streets – and walked down the Esplanade past the St. Lawrence Market until we came to the security area. Not much going on until we reached the intersection of Bay and Wellesley. This is what we saw there:
It was quite peaceful, actually, but there were lines of police blocking the road and behind them ranks of riot police in full gear. There appeared to be as many onlookers (like us) as there were actual protesters. A group of church ladies walked by singing a quiet song – clearly a non-violent bunch – and someone handed us a pamphlet touting the virtues of veganism. My son was highly amused by one large sign a young man was carrying that said: “stop protesting and start a business!”
Next we headed up past police check-points to Nathan Phillips Square where we ate a hotdog and watched the seagulls on Toronto’s real “fake lake.” Other than the smashed windows on the Starbucks just to our south, it all seemed very Toronto.
Just then an long, long cavalcade of cyclists rode by, some even tooting vuvuzelas. When we walked back past Bay and Wellesley, a number of these cyclists had stopped and were brandishing their bikes in the air, surrounded by clicking cameras. We passed numerous media people speaking into cameras, or microphones, or even their cell phones, but it really appeared at this point that there was not much of a story – at least not on this intersection.
We walked back to the car and chatted about the whole thing: why were people protesting, why was there a security fence, why didn’t the police want people to get near the fence, what was the G20 about anyway etc. We even figured out who Nathan Phillips was (Toronto’s first Jewish Mayor, among other things). We didn’t witness anything too dramatic, but at least we had changed the G20 from something we hear about in the news into something that was a personal experience.
A while back I innocently signed up for the “Clutter Control Club” Newsletter on the Canadian Parents web site (click on the link for “Clubs“).
I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
It turns out this is an intensive 28-Day program of epic proportions. And it’s pretty darned useful stuff, too. Basically, you get a new email every day with tips, encouragement, and specific steps to take that day. I’m sure many people will actually execute the whole program down to a “T” – and I’m sure it could pretty much change their lives to do so. But for the rest of us slackers, there’s more than enough useful advice to make a difference on the home front.
As a single parent running my business from my home (mostly), I have often felt overwhelmed by the work of managing the household – on top of managing my kids and everything else. Along the way I have noticed two things:
1. It’s a lot easier to keep a tidy house tidy.
2. I am a much better parent when the home is in order.
The first point is not a word play: it’s much less effort to maintain order than it is to create it out of chaos. I am an “inspired creative” type of person, so I have no problem creating chaos! But (ironically) the more order I maintain in my home, the effective all that inspired creativity is. It’s almost like my home is a reflection of my state of mind. Slowly but surely, I am learning to create and keep this order.
The second point is even ore important. Your kids are only kids once, so naturally all of us parents want to make the experience and the process as positive and helpful to them as possible. “Positive and helpful” does not generally include things like nagging or arguing, but I find that’s just what I do when things around me are in disarray. It’s easy blame my kids for the mess – which may be true in a way. But of course I am the parent, so it’s up to me to create a constructive mood. That means guiding my children to what they could or should be doing, rather than blaming them for what they have not yet learned to do.
What can I say? An orderly home makes me a better parent.
Now back to the Clutter Control Club Agenda. Sometimes advice doesn’t need to be earth-shattering to be really helpful. One of my favourite things in the CCC is the “Sparkle Kit.” Basically, a “Sparkle Kit” is a carrier with all your cleaning supplies and equipment. Yes the name is cheesy and the idea is fairly simple, but it works for me. I have kept all the cleaning stuff in the kitchen closet – except for some of the bathroom cleaning gear, which is under the bathroom sink. Bad idea. Keep everything together and make sure it’s portable. It speeds up cleaning a whole lot and makes it much easier for my boys when it’s their turn to clean. there is a thread on the Canadian Parents forum called “What’s in Your Sparkle Kit?” It’s interesting to see what people include, and how they use their cleaning gear. And it’s awesome that people take the time to talk about this stuff with each other.
I also like the “Clutter Control System Five” (I even like the cool name. Does that make me a cleaning nerd?). These are the five steps to de-cluttering a room. I’m doing them right now in my office.
Step 1: Ask yourself this question: This room/closet/area is a space for….
Step 2: Then decide: based on your answers above, how you are going to set up your space.
Step 3: Sort
Step 4: Clean
Step 5: Organize and Containerize
Again, it’s not rocket science, but it helps to systematize the process.
What about you? How is the clutter thing affecting you and your family? How do you deal with it?
A tidy corner of my office ... with roses from the garden.
Thanks, and kudos to Tracy Keleher, “maven and host” of the Clutter Control Club.
